St Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, Co Longford

St Mel’s Cathedral, Longford, Co Longford

A key characteristic of slate from the Penrhyn quarry is the ability for the slate to be cut or split to a large format. In the case of St. Mel’s, the main slate size originally used was a 35”x24”- these large sizes were particularly popular in the 1800s and frequently used on prestigious buildings such as Churches and Cathedrals. One of the key specifications in the restoration project was that the architects wanted to replicate the exact slate and size that was used on the original build. To that end, Lagan Building Solutions supplied over 3,400 new 35”x24” slates to the project over a 3-4 month period to replace the original roof destroyed in the fire of 2009.